Trump said he was "honored" to receive the endorsement, ignoring a question about his administration attacking LGBTQ equality

Donald Trump is using a recent endorsement by an LGBTQ Republican organization to excuse his administration’s anti-LGBTQ actions.

The Log Cabin Republicans — the nation’s largest and oldest LGBTQ Republican group — endorsed Trump for reelection in 2020, saying that his administration has taken “bold actions that benefit the LGBTQ community.”

The was met with derision from LGBTQ people and even some of LCR’s own members, due to the Trump administration’s various and sustained efforts to rollback LGBTQ rights and protections.

Three high-profile Log Cabin members have announced their resignation from the group, with one saying there was “no world where I can sit down at the dining room table and explain to my children that I just endorsed Donald Trump for president.”

Trump, meanwhile, used the endorsement to avoid discussing his anti-LGBTQ actions at a press event on Tuesday, Aug. 20, saying he was “honored” to receive it and telling reporters that gay businessman Peter Thiel and others “like the job I’m doing.”

“Well you know I just got an award and an endorsement yesterday from a — the exact group. You saw that. They gave me the endorsement yesterday, and I was very honored to — is it Log Cabin, the Log Cabin group — and I was very honored to receive it,” he said. (For the record, the endorsement was last Thursday, Aug. 15, and wasn’t accompanied by an award.)

“No, I’ve done very well with that community,” Trump continued. “Some of my biggest supporters are of that community and I think they — and I’ve talked to them a lot about it. I think I’ve done really very well with that community. As you know, Peter Thiel and so many others, they’re with me all the way and they like the job I’m doing. And I just got a big endorsement from the Log Cabin group.”

Watch that word salad response below:

REPORTER: Mr POTUS, your administration has been taking steps to make it easier to discriminate against LGBT people in the workforce. Are you okay with that?

In a brief to the court, the Trump administration said that employers are within their rights to terminate a trans person’s employment because they aren’t protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act — which bans discrimination based on sex.